A revenue official allegedly transferred the 16 acre land belonging to Manpreet's wife Veenu Badal, his mother-in-law Dr Shavinder Kaur Johal and some other relatives. The land belonging to the family falls in Punjab's Ferozepur district.

Manpreet's brother-in-law Jaijeet Singh Johal stated that the family did not sell or transfer the land to anyone. They were shocked to learn that the land belonging to them had other owners on record. "The family neither sold the land nor had any court given verdict to change its ownership. We are at our wit's end how the ownership of the land was changed in the revenue record?" he questioned.

Johal said that they had moved a complaint to the deputy commissioner, Ferozepur along with all relevant documents including the record of ownership. The family sought the deputy commissioner to order the registration of a criminal case against officials for tampering with the record. They also sought the authorities to correct the revenue record. The deputy commissioner ordered an inquiry into the entire episode.

The family alleged that a patwari in connivance with revenue department officials changed the original ownership in the consolidation land record. He included the name of Labh Singh and some other persons as owners.

Johal added that Labh Singh and others persons took a loan of Rs 10 lakh from a bank in Ferozepur cantonment. The officials of the revenue department helped the accused. The bank officials did not scrutinised the documents submitted by the accused before advancing the loan, he said.

The patwari Santokh Singh denied any forgery. He said that the land was not registered against Labh Singh and other persons. He said that ownership of 16 acre land was entered into the column meant for the name of the cultivators while the record was being computerised. The inadvertent error came to their notice and was rectified. He said that the department had already rectified the error before the real owners complained to the deputy commissioner. He said he was not aware if the accused secured a loan from the bank using the "wrong" documents.